Looking for a little something to fill the time on those sleepy festive days? Fancy playing something with your family/friends but can’t face the tensions of the monopoly board? Want to do something creative but not sure what to make? 

The Exquisite Corpse game is the solution to all of your problems! 

Invented in 1925 by the surrealists Andre Breton, Marcel Duchamp, Jacques Prevert and Yves Tanguy, Exquisite Corpse’s rules are rooted in a classic parlour game – one where players take it in turns to write a word on a piece of paper and fold it to hide what they’ve written, before passing it on to the next person to form a bizarre phrase. However, in this version, rather than adding words, players contribute to a drawing of a character without seeing what others have drawn before them. The character becomes stranger and more surreal with every addition. 

The instructions for the game are very simple and you can play with any materials you have on hand, from paint on card to a biro on some printer paper, even on the back of a till receipt. It works best if played with 2-4 people, but if you want to play with more you can always work with a longer sheet of paper and fold a few extra times! 

• Take your chosen piece of paper and fold it into four equal parts. 
• Draw the head of your character on the top section of the paper, extending the bottom lines over the fold so that the next player knows where to join up their drawing to yours. 
• Fold your image back to hide it from the next player and pass the paper on! 
• Have the next player add a torso to the drawing, before extending the lines below the fold, hiding their drawing and passing the paper on to the player after them. 
• Repeat with the legs and finally the feet! 
• Unfold the paper when everyone is done to reveal your marvellous creation! 

You don’t only have to do this at home… You could be inspired by artworks at the Whitworth.  

I wonder what a creature would look like with the head of ‘Maremma Warrior Head V’, the torse of ‘Genesis’, the legs of ‘Sow of Landser’ and the feet of ‘Nemesis’? 

Why not take a walk around the gallery on your next visit with friends or family and take it in turns drawing from the artworks on display. We would love to see the critters and creatures you come up with! 

To make you characters more festive, why not… 

• Be inspired by festive motifs e.g., wrapping paper, baubles, evergreens, robins and snowflakes and work them into your characters as patterns and features. 
• Get creative with your materials – why not use ribbon, snippets from old Christmas cards or glitter to collage your critter? 
• Incorporate elements from iconic Christmas figures like Santa, Scrooge, the snowman and Rudolph – you could go cute and cuddly and create a new beloved festive mascot or unleash a monster even more frightening than Krampus into the world! 
• When your character is finished why not work together to imagine the setting that your character sits in… Does it live in a chimney waiting for an unsuspecting Father Christmas, or frolic through a candy cane forest spreading joy to their hard-boiled friends? 

Be sure to share your creations, we would love to see them! #WhitworthAdvent –Jake